Milwaukee Metal Fest 2024: Lineup, where to get tickets, & all we know so far

Milwaukee Metal Fest 2024 is scheduled to be held from May 16, 2024, to May 19, 2024, at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The festival's upcoming edition will be its twenty-second edition, having been first founded in 1987 by Jack Koshik.

The 2024 festival will feature performances by Blind Guardian, Slaughter to Prevail, Hatebreed, and more. The announcement was made via a post on the festival's official Instagram page on November 20, 2023:

Early Bird tickets are currently available for purchase. Tickets are priced at $276.00 for Early Bird general tickets, $336 for Early Bird general balcony tickets, $741 for Early Bird reserved balcony tickets, and $1271 for Early Bird VIP tickets. All listed ticket prices are exclusive of processing fees and taxes. Tickets can be purchased at the official website of the festival or via the ETIX ticketing vendor.

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Milwaukee Metal Fest 2024 lineup

Milwaukee Metal Fest is bringing along a number of star acts to what is set to be its second edition since its 2023 revival. Notable bands among them include Hatebreed, Blind Guardian and Mr. Bungle.

Hatebreed is a metalcore band best known for its second studio album, Perseverance, which was released on March 12, 2002. Speaking about the upcoming festival, the band's frontman and current festival organizer Jamey Jasta stated in a general press statement:

"We extremely excited to have Milwaukee Metal Fest not only coming back for another insane year but this time around we have added power metal, more black metal, more doom and some other surprise elements that were not logistically possible last year..."

Blind Guardian is best known for its seventh studio album, A Night at the Opera, which was released on March 25, 2002. The album peaked at number 5 on the German album chart and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide.

Experimental rock band Mr.Bungle is best known for its second studio album, Disco Volante, which was released on October 10, 1995. The album peaked at number 40 on the Australian album chart.

Alongside these bands, there will also be Slaughter to Prevail, Katatonia, and Deicide, with more bands to be announced in the near future as the festival moves closer to its opening date.

The current lineup for the Milwaukee Metal Fest 2024 is given below:

• Hatebreed
• Blind Guardian
• In Flames
• Deicide
• Embryonic Autopsy
• Eyes of the Living
• Marduk
• Metal Church
• Incantation
• Internal Bleeding
• Kamelot
• Possessed
• Slaughter to Prevail
• Skinless
• Red Chord

Milwaukee Metal Fest was started by Josh Koshik in 1987, with the first edition featuring fifteen bands. The festival was originally conceptualized as an underground festival, as the founder states in this interview with Metalupdate on September 8, 1999:

"North America's premiere underground heavy metal festival. Its been my labor of love for the last thirteen years. I started it in 1987, with fifteen bands in one afternoon at the Eagles Ballroom."

The founder later elaborated on what he meant by underground in the interview:

"It's non-conformist. I kinda like that. If you came to my office - I operate out of my home. There's really nothing here, with the exception of a couple of computers and piles of paper . . . I guess, we're not corporate. We don't have that corporate structure to us. And, quite honestly, I like it that way. I'm not looking to be corporate."

The festival ran for twenty years, before going on hiatus in 2007. After fifteen years, the rights to the festival were purchased by Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta, which led to its revival in 2023.